Encyclopedia Dubuque
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RIALTO THEATRE
RIALTO THEATRE. The 1929 Dubuque City Directory listed 479 Main.
In 1938 Joe Jacobson, president of the Dubuque Theater Company, announced that "Rialto" had been chosen as the name for the new theater at 10th and Main. The opening date was expected to be the end of May. Seating from the American Seating Company was designed in two-tone shades of red and black. (1)
A well dug three-hundred feet deep provided water at a temperature of 42 degrees. This was piped into the theater and circulated through fin coils to cool the air. (2)
Theater-goers to the first "talking pictures" remembered "tinny" sound effects and voices. The Rialto management announced state-of-the-art wide-range sound equipment from RCA and Bell would remedy the problem. A "di-phonic speaker system" containing horn-shaped components arranged like a honeycomb "distributed every tonal quality scientifically to every seat in the theater." (3)
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Source:
1. "New Theater's Name 'Rialto,' " Telegraph-Herald, April 10, 1938, p. 19
2. Ibid.
3. "Rialto's Sound Equipment New," Telegraph-Herald, April 17, 1938, p 19